In a lively interaction organised at EDUCATION FOR PEACE, New Age Islam between Mrs. Nilakshi Rajkhowa, Director of Advancement of Women and Youth Affairs, Baha’i Office of Public Affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of India and the students ofEDUCATION FOR PEACE, New Age Islam on the topic “Child's Education is a Key Driver for Peace” various spectrums of the children’s life opened up and discussed to the full satisfaction of the students and Mrs. Nilakshi Rajkhowa. We brief the discussion as under.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE teaches English, Computer and Accounts (Tally etc.) on a daily basis to 200 young people between 12 to 18 years of age from impoverished background. In addition to this, it provides these children with identity-related workshops to develop their critical and independent eye, widen their mental outlook, and thus strengthen the building up of their personality.

Hanadi Rashad poses with "Koko", one of her puppet video assistants, at the set area of her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. Rashad has developed a series of videos and a self-published book to help teach young children Arabic so they can better understand the Quran.

Saudi Religious Scholar Warns Women against Working for Telemarketing Firms

Indian army’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lt. Gen. Vinod Bhatia (third from right) arrives on the Indian side of the border after a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Maj Gen Aamer Riaz, at Wagah, on Tuesday.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Islam is based on the Prophet's mysticism, honesty and social activism, says Sultan Shahin in Pune: Muslims should strengthen these spiritual foundations of Islam and not fall prey to Fascism

By New Age Islam Special Correspondent

Pune: 14 December, 2013

Islam is based on the foundation of mysticism, total trustworthiness of the Prophet and his social activism, fight against oppression and exploitation, said Sultan Shahin, founder and editor of the multilingual Islamic website NewAgeIslam.com, addressing a mixed gathering of intellectuals, activists and youths in Pune, Maharashtra.

Mr. Sultan Shahin was speaking on “Muslim: Education, Reform and National Integration” at a talk organized by Dnyaneshwar Mulay Education Society

For nearly a decade, Muslims have hoisted Turkey as an illustration of Islam’s compatibility with modern liberalism. Never mind anachronistic Saudi Arabia, we said. Forget volatile if syncretic Indonesia too. It was Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey that exemplified Islam’s liberal credentials: peaceful and democratic even as it veered away from a century of coercive secularism. That Turkey is under threat, and not just because of Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian stance. A widening feud between him and his erstwhile ally, the recalcitrant Islamist Gülen movement, can put paid to claims that Islam can coexist with liberal democracy.

Until quite recently, Erdogan was an extremely popular leader in Turkey. His AK (Justice and Development) Party won three successive general elections after forging a remarkable alliance of the business class, the working class, and the religious class. Riding on this wave, Erdogan began to wean Turkish politics from its dependence on the will of the armed forces and Turkish society from coercive secularism. New laws weakened the military’s political clout and made adherence to secular or religious values a matter of personal choice. Turkey’s many Islamic orders, which had long suffered under the military, were particularly pleased, and they all pulled their weight behind Erdogan.

In the recent decades, the whole Muslim world has witnessed a great resurgence of Islam in both personal as well as in public life. We notice that in the personal level more outward religious identity or symbols are being in the use; for example, there is a noticeable rise in the number of Muslim men who have started sporting beard and similarly women wearing burqa. In the public sphere, new Islamic governments or republics have been established in Iran, Sudan, and Afghanistan. In the political sphere, Muslim banners are seen a lot.

According to John O Voll, the causes for the “resurgence of Islam” are many. During the 20th century, many, in fact, almost all Islamic empires were destroyed and replaced by modern nation-states. Voll says that between the two Great Wars, most of the newly created states won their independence from European colonial rulers. But, many of the rulers were placed on their thrones by the colonial nations. The situation was such that European culture influenced these societies. There was total dominance of the “Western” society over the so-called “Islamic” society. So national, social, cultural, as well as religious identity remained unresolved.

Vincent J Cornell, in ‘The Fruit of the Tree’ says that “once these modern nation-states were created in the Muslim world”, it was expected of them that

Newton’s Law is simplistically stated as: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Newton did not ‘invent’ this law, he simply articulated in words after “contemplation” (i) upon the natural phenomenon in nature and enunciated what are fixed law (ii) in universe.

The falling of an apple on his head while sitting under an apple tree triggered the thought process for proclaiming ‘theory of gravity’ for example could be a fiction but it illustrates how contemplation does to human ‘understanding’ (iii).

This quest for knowledge is essentially based on an assurance (iv) that if it is followed by experiments and research, would finally yield knowledge of the working of laws of nature. This knowledge when applied correctly in practice produces desired results for the benefit of mankind (v).